The impact of global value chain participation on income inequality

Abstract

There is a considerable amount of discussion over the effect of global value chain (GVC) participation on the increasing levels of income inequality in developed and developing countries. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the interlink between income inequality and GVC participation. For this purpose, a panel data analysis is conducted with recent GVC data from the UNCTAD-Eora database. The results from panel data estimations for a sample of 39 countries over the period 1995–2016 suggest that offshoring has a significant inequality reducing effect for developing economies in the long run. Although the estimation results also indicate that some negative distributional effects of GVC related trade emerge in the short run, these seem to be mainly short run reactions of the economy, which might be offset in the long run through the adjustment of the labor market towards a new long run equilibrium.